Gifting & E-Commerce DTCBuilt a data-driven team while generating €1.8M/year. 56 experiments, 18 winners, and 13.5× ROI.
A free 30-minute call with the team. That's it.
The short version
SendAFriend is a social-first gifting brand with strong paid social and TikTok-driven demand. The opportunity was not just to sell plush products more efficiently. It was to convert fast-moving social traffic into a personal, emotionally loaded gift decision. DRIP helped generate €1.8M/year in additional revenue at 13.5x ROI while training the internal team to think in tests, hypotheses, and data-backed decisions.
The program created €1.8M per year in additional revenue while strengthening the internal testing culture.
SendAFriend built its growth engine around social traffic, gifting moments, and emotionally resonant products. The live shop still makes that visible: a clear hero promise, care-package CTA, recipient-oriented copy, reviews, and a best-seller grid.
That traffic source changes the CRO problem. Social visitors often arrive with emotion and curiosity but less patience. They need the site to convert the feeling quickly into a concrete gift path.
The validated driver profile was direct: Belonging scored 95, Comfort 85, and Security 70. Customers were buying a relationship signal, not only a stuffed animal.
SendAFriend's traffic had high emotional potential but could leak if the page became too transactional. Visitors needed to picture the recipient, feel the care gesture, and understand the next step quickly.
The internal team also needed a more systematic way to decide what to change. Without a testing framework, teams naturally debate preferences: copy tone, product layout, bundles, cart treatment, or promotion placement.
The CRO challenge was therefore two-layered: generate immediate revenue from existing traffic and leave the team with a better decision system after the engagement.
Our process
DRIP's method in three steps, and what each step looked like at SendAFriend.
Step 1
We studied the emotional job behind the gift.
Step 2
The consulting layer made the team better at testing.
Step 3
We shipped small tests at emotionally important points.
Step 1
We studied the emotional job behind the gift.
SendAFriend's buyer is not only choosing a plush. They are trying to make someone feel loved, supported, remembered, or cheered up. That made Belonging and Comfort the central drivers for test design.
The strongest tests made the recipient and the emotional payoff more concrete at the moment of action.
01
Gift decisions are about relationship reassurance.
02
Map where emotion fades into transaction.
03
Make the recipient and payoff more concrete.
Step 2
The consulting layer made the team better at testing.
DRIP did not only hand over variants. We helped the team practice the operating model: write the hypothesis, define the mechanism, read the result, and decide what the next test should teach.
The program's compounding value came from revenue plus a better internal decision habit.
01
Translate ideas into hypotheses.
02
Let evidence beat preference.
03
Use every test to improve the next one.
Step 3
We shipped small tests at emotionally important points.
The program focused on changes that could be built and interpreted cleanly: ATC sublines, animal personality traits, bundle clarity, and cart-stage emotional reinforcement.
Emotional CRO works best when the intervention is specific. Generic sentiment is weak; concrete recipient relevance is strong.
01
Prioritize high-intent PDP and cart moments.
02
Make the gift feel chosen, not generic.
03
Read impact beyond conversion rate alone.
The strongest conversion opportunities came from making the product feel personal, reducing uncertainty around the gift path, and keeping the emotional payoff visible until checkout.
Shoppers needed to believe the gift would make the recipient feel seen and cared for.
The purchase became easier when the page made recipient joy specific and credible.
Animal traits and care-package choices made the item feel intentionally selected.
A stronger testing habit made future decisions more evidence-based.
The purchase got easier when the recipient felt vivid.
The page had to turn the impulse into a clear gift path, fast.
Small personal details strengthened the connection before payment.
Shared hypotheses and result reviews replaced debates about taste.
The real control, variant and result screenshots behind each test.
Test 1 of 3
The cart is a high-intent moment where the product can become a generic line item. Adding personality traits made the animal feel more chosen and emotionally relevant.
Test 2 of 3
A short emotional subline under the Add to Cart button connected the action with the reason for buying: making someone feel comforted and loved.
Test 3 of 3
The test compared the original PDP with two purchase-path variants: add-on upsells above the CTA and a stronger bundle-choice layout. It showed where additional gift options helped rather than distracted.
Across 56 experiments, 18 produced statistically significant winners. The work generated €1.8M/year in additional revenue and a 13.5x ROI.
The biggest wins came from emotional personalization and cart-stage reinforcement, where the site made the gift feel more specific and more meaningful.
The deeper impact was organizational. SendAFriend's team moved from debating site opinions to forming hypotheses and using results to decide what to do next.
SendAFriend shows why social-first CRO has to account for traffic psychology. TikTok and paid social can create fast emotional attention, but the site has to turn that attention into a concrete gift path before it fades.
For gifting brands, personalization is not decoration. It is decision architecture: the more vividly the shopper can imagine the recipient, the easier the purchase becomes.
Thanks to DRIP, our team now thinks in tests and data. They've not only elevated our understanding of business-wide optimization but also trained us to tackle challenges with data-backed, test-driven solutions.
Tyler Macke
Founder, SendAFriend
Book a call with the team and tell us about your shop. We'll talk through where it stands, where you want it to go, and how we'd get you there. If working with us isn't the best return on your money, we'd tell you rather than take it.
30 minutes, and you'll know exactly where your shop stands.
